Michael Ready

Michael Ready is a naturalist and photographer based in San Diego, California. From vanishing amphibians to bioluminescent squid, Ready's collection of images seeks to reveal the diversity of life and particularly its smaller and lesser-known forms. His early fascination with wildlife was bolstered by day trips to the San Gabriels to look for lizards and newts with his grandfather and summers exploring the intertidal on the California coast. Vital in nurturing the drive to explore and discover, those young experiences of the local wilderness continue to inspire his work. While possessing a background deeply rooted in natural history, Ready’s vision is divergent from typified "nature" photography. His work proceeds from a fine arts perspective, with an eye for rich colors, abstract patterns, and compositional mystery. The resulting images bring a sense of connection to the wild within and without us -- and to the idea that nothing is outside of nature

"So much wildlife is undervalued simply for the reason that it is not itself easily recognizable, and its contribution to the planet, ecosystem, or humanity, even less so. This is especially true of the smaller forms -- the strange ones that require us to get down into the undergrowth with a magnifying glass, snorkel a stream, or explore the nooks of a reef to know they are there. The bulk of my work focuses on these unusual yet captivating and often beautiful creatures, like marine invertebrates, arthropods, and amphibians. I try to create windows to those secret worlds in ways that create a greater awareness of the magnificence of the natural world and its enormous biodiversity -- and hopefully encourage action to preserve wildlife and wild places."

Toward that effort, Ready is an Associate Member of the International League of Conservation Photographers -- a group using awe-inspiring photography to further environmental and cultural conservation. Through this group his work is being used directly in conservation projects and outreach.

Ready's field expeditions have taken him to locales around the world, including the Amazon Basin, Central America, South East Asia, and Japan, where he was honored to swim in mountain streams and photograph giant salamanders as old as he. Though he has traveled to remote and exotic destinations, he still finds intrigue and inspiration in the details of an Arizona unicorn mantis or a colony of California harvester ants.